


Cradle to Grave

by Xie



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 17:43:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1696919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xie/pseuds/Xie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A post-series Halloween.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cradle to Grave

Brian pulled something out of the closet. "What do you think?"

Justin shook his head, and took the sleeveless, sexy club shirt away from Brian. "No, really, you can't. You promised."

Brian sighed, hurtling himself backwards on the bed. "Was I high? Drunk? Under hypnosis?"

"No, it was just another one of those situations where Lindsay said, 'Gus wants you to…' and you agreed." Justin tossed a heavy sweater at him. "Bundle up. It's cold."

Brian sat up, letting the sweater slide to the floor. " _Bundle up_? Do I look like a fucking Eskimo?"

Justin laughed. "No. Is that what you want to be while you take Gus trick or treating?"

Brian stood up and pulled on the sweater. "Fuck you." But he said it without heat, admiring himself in the mirror. "Even in this, I look hot."

Justin stood next to him. "True. And I'm sure Gus and Jenny and all their little friends will appreciate it."

Brian stared. "Jenny? Little friends? I distinctly remember saying I'd take _Gus_ trick or treating, not the various low-life street urchins with whom his parents allow him to associate."

Justin's response was muffled by the sweater he was pulling over his head. Brian only heard the last few words, something like, "… fun for Gus."

"Let's take your car," Brian said as he went down the stairs. "And you drive."

"Huh?" Justin was surprised. Even when they took Justin's car, Brian almost always drove. His inner control freak made it impossible for him not to. "Why?"

Brian headed for the media room, and Justin followed, noticing Brian pop something into his mouth on the way to the bar.

Brian picked up a bottle of scotch. "Because I'm going to need drugs and alcohol to get through this, and I vaguely recall something about driving under the influence being illegal." He took a deep swallow. "Halloween in the drunk tank just doesn't hold the appeal for me it once did."

By the time Justin pulled into Melanie and Lindsay's driveway, Brian had gone from testing out plausible excuses for not showing up to a sort of bitter acceptance of his fate. But when Gus came flying out of the house in his Spiderman costume, the smile on Brian's face lost any trace of bitterness.

"Hey, Spidey," he said. Then he looked more carefully. "Nice costume, Gus."

"Uncle Michael made it," Gus said. "Can we go now, Daddy? It's almost dark."

Justin glanced at the sky. "Well, not quite, Gus. Let's go inside for a minute and talk to your moms."

Gus sighed and plodded after them back into the house, which was decorated with cobwebs, ghosts, bales of hay, a scarecrow, and about a dozen pumpkins meant to be, Brian assumed, jack-o-lanterns, but more closely resembling some terrible industrial food production accident.

"You made it!" Lindsay brushed a kiss onto Brian's cheek, then Justin's. "He's had his costume on for almost three hours now. I tried to get him to eat dinner before he goes out, but he says he wants to save room for candy."

"Oh, look," Brian said as Melanie walked into the hallway. "The Wicked Witch. Nice costume, Mel."

Gus interrupted whatever Melanie was going to say. "She's not wearing a costume!"

Brian looked down at him. "She's not?"

Lindsay sighed, and steered everyone into the family room. "Can I get you anything? Candy corn? Carmel apples? Very tiny little Snickers bars?"

Melanie snorted. "Pure liquefied high fructose corn syrup injected directly into your liver?"

Justin frowned. "How about a plain apple?"

Melanie tossed him one from a bowl on the dining room table. "Pussy."

"Language," Lindsay said.

Gus frowned. "What's wrong with pussy?"

"I'm just going to kill myself now," Lindsay said to no one in particular.

"Don't even think it," Brian warned. "I'm not going to be responsible for answering that question. So," he went on, changing the subject. "Michael made the Spidey outfit?"

Melanie laughed and sat down next to Lindsay. "Michael designed it. Michael supervised its construction. Michael issued its certificate of authenticity. But it was Grandma Deb who did the actual sewing."

"Gus," said Justin, "Where's Jenny?"

The little boy shrugged, and Melanie answered. "She's taking a nap. This is a late night for her."

"What's her costume?" Justin asked. "A fairy princess?"

Mel gave him a pained look. "Are you out of your fu… your mind? She's…"

"A motorcycle mechanic," Brian suggested. "Traffic cop? Cattle rustler?"

"No!" Gus said excitedly. "She's a DINOSAUR! But not Barney."

"No," Brian said, looking a little baffled. "I wouldn't think she'd be Barney." He looked at Justin. "Who the hell is Barney?"

Justin jabbed him with an elbow. "You're too old to understand."

"It's dark now," Gus said with such authority that everyone looked out the window, even though it was perfectly obvious it wasn't true. "Grandma Debbie said we could go early to the diner."

Brian gripped the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "I'm taking Gus trick or treating on Liberty Avenue?"

Lindsay smiled. "Just the diner, then back here. It should be dark by then."

Justin almost laughed at the expression on Brian's face. "Don't worry," he said. "Your reputation survived watching Gus during Pride a few years ago. It will survive taking him trick or treating at the diner. Besides, it's still early. Hardly anyone will be out yet."

Brian stood up. "Fine," he said. "But if they are, you…" and he pointed at Melanie… "will be the one who explains what the guy in the executioner's hood and assless chaps was dressed as."

Justin thought Brian might try to drive, but he didn't. And he began to suspect there was more than one reason Brian let him drive, when Lindsay strapped Gus into his booster seat in the back of the Land Rover.

"I have to wonder," Brian said, glancing over his shoulder, "how any of us survived our childhoods without all these safety seats and helmets and special protective gear."

Justin laughed. "You ready back there, Gus?"

"Let's go!" he answered.

Justin thought Brian muttered something like, "Kill me now," but he ignored him and backed out of the driveway.

The diner was decorated the same as every Halloween, with paper skeletons hanging from the ceiling, festooned with bright orange and black feather boas. Debbie's boobs were front and center in a saloon madam costume that strangely suited her, and she half-filled Gus' bucket with candy and smeared lipstick on his cheek when he pulled off his mask to eat some of it.

Debbie watched the orgy of sugar-consumption with a beaming smile, then looked at Justin. "Where's my darling little granddaughter?"

Justin stopped Gus from eating another candy bar. "She was napping. Mel and Linds said they'd bring her by in a little while."

She looked at Brian. "Don't tell me they're letting you take this child trick or treating around _here_?"

"I'm taking _my son_ trick or treating out in the Stepford zone, Grandma," Brian said. "Halloween night on Liberty Avenue is not something even I want to explain to a…"

"Justin?" Gus was watching two customers make their way to a table in the back. "Look, that man is a doggie for Halloween. That other man has him on a leash."

"Time to go," Justin said brightly.

Justin took pity on Brian and buckled Gus into his seat while Brian gnawed his lip, furrowed his brow, and contorted his face in ways guaranteed to make some future plastic surgeon a rich man. But by the time they were heading back to Mel and Linds' place, he seemed calm.

"Turn here," he told Justin.

Justin did, but frowned. "This is the wrong way."

"I want to show Gus something."

"Ohhhh-kay," Justin said slowly.

Brian gave him a few more directions, and finally had him turn down a narrow street lined with trees. He jumped out of the car and opened the back door. "C'mon, Gus," he said, unfastening the child seat. "Let me show you where Daddy used to spend Halloween night."

Justin climbed the cemetery fence first, then helped Gus get over the top while Brian hoisted him from the other side. Brian quickly scaled it next, dropping lightly to his feet next to the other two.

"Just like Spiderman," Gus said admiringly.

It was completely dark by then, but Justin had brought a flashlight from the car, and he used it to illuminate the rocky path that ran along beside the fence. They came to the end of a tall hedge, and stopped.

Gus gave a little gasp, and leaned against Brian's leg. "Are there… _dead people_ here?"

"Sure," Brian said. "On Halloween night, they rise out of their graves and…" He stopped when Justin's elbow drove into his side.

Gus stared at him, but didn't say anything.

"Come on," Brian said, and pulled Gus and Justin down the path towards a shadowy gray monument.

They stopped and stared up at it. "This is where your Uncle Mikey and I used to come on Halloween," he said. "We'd drink… I mean, we'd eat candy and tell ghost stories."

They sat on the edge of the monument, and after a minute, Gus offered them some of his candy. They sat, munching on chocolate, for a little while.

An owl hooted, and Gus jerked in surprise, then pushed himself more firmly against Brian's side. "Was that a ghost?"

Justin shook his head, and put his arm around Gus from the other side. "No, Gus, it was an owl. Don't be afraid."

"But what about ghosts? Are they out of their graves now?" And he looked around, shivering.

Justin glared at Brian behind his back, and started to say something, but Brian cut him off. "Yes, Gus, but they can't hurt you."

"Why not?"

Brian's voice was firm. "Because your parents love you. Didn't you know that no ghosts can ever hurt a little boy if his parents love him? That's why you have parents, to love you and keep you safe." Brian glanced at Justin. "You should close your mouth, Justin. That jaw-dropped look is not good on you."

Justin snapped his jaw shut, then narrowed his eyes. "That's not what you said when you…."

"Okay," Brian said, standing up and grabbing Justin's flashlight. "Let me show you where Uncle Mikey and I tried to fly."

They explored the cemetery, including the site of Uncle Mikey's broken wrist after their ill-fated experiment in defying gravity. "Was his mama mad?" Gus asked.

"No," Brian said, wiping candy corn goo off his hands onto his jeans. "She was just worried."

"Liar," Justin whispered. "I'll bet Debbie yelled so loud it woke the dead."

Brian laughed. "That's how Debbie shows her concern."

"Was _your_ mama mad?" Gus asked.

"I didn't have a mama," Brian said. "I was raised by wolves."

Gus stopped and stared. "You were?"

Brian ruffled his hair. "Sure was, son. I'll tell you all about it one day. When you're older."

"I have a mama," Justin said. "Aunt Jennifer is my mama."

Gus looked at him as if the connections of the universe were simply too complicated for his mind to process. "I have two mamas."

"You sure do," said Brian. "And I think we'd better hurry up, if we want to get back to them before they start to worry."

"Like Uncle Michael's mama did?"

Brian turned the flashlight towards the path along the fence. "Just like that," he agreed.

They parked in front of the house, and did just enough trick or treating to top off Gus' candy stash. They were sitting on the porch, Gus sleeping with his head in Brian's lap, when Mel and Linds finally pulled into the driveway.

"Did you have a good time?" Lindsay asked, pulling Gus' sleeping body up out of Brian's arms while Melanie helped a candy-laden JR up the stairs.

Brian stood up, stretching. "It was all right." Then he raised one eyebrow. "Oh, and if Gus asks, yes, I was raised by wolves."

Melanie stopped in the doorway, Jenny's dinosaur tail in her hand. "That's what I always tell him."

Brian nodded. "Keep up the good work."

When they got back to the car, Brian insisted on driving. "Let's go to Babylon," he said. "I feel a burning need to get my dick sucked in public."

Justin laughed. "Are you sure you don't want to take me back to your den and ravish me, Wolfman?"

"Tempting though the prospect is," Brian said, turning towards downtown, "there's just something about Halloween at Babylon I can't seem to resist. I'm not sure what it is… the lights, the music, the steady stream of intoxicating and mind-altering substances, the naked men…"

"We're not really dressed for Babylon," Justin pointed out, gesturing at their heavy sweaters.

"We can change at the loft."

"All I have at the loft is paint-spattered sweatpants and t-shirts that are too big."

"Because," said Brian, "you stole them from me."

Justin made a short gesture with his hand. "Regardless."

"Well," Brian said, still driving towards Liberty Avenue, "just wear your tighty whities. It won't be the first time." He glanced at Justin. "I'm sure if we rifled through the storeroom at the club we could even find your angel wings."

"For a guy who says he wants his dick sucked, you're sure taking a strange approach to this whole evening."

Brian laughed. "We'll go to the loft. We'll find something to wear. And then we'll go dancing and fucking and getting wasted, and then maybe we can go back to that cemetery and fuck on somebody's grave."

Justin sighed, and put his hand on Brian's leg. "Wow. That's so romantic, how can I say no?"

Brian let his right hand tangle with Justin's. "Do you want to?"

Justin smiled and tightened his fingers on Brian's as they pulled up in front of the loft. "No. Not at all."


End file.
